Getting value on the river

my opponent later tells me that he had a Jack with a nine kicker and that if I would have bet less on the river he would have called. But this is just his word he did not "show." I check called flop because I drilled it so hard I wanted to give my opponent a chance to catch up. I lead small on the turn because I figured at least one of my opponents would likely have at least paired their ace or (even better) had the Jack. But I think I made a mistake in shoving the river I thought my opponent would call with any flush any smaller boat any Jack or even any Ace because aces and jacks would beat Kings and queens. But I think this illustrates the concept of "turning my hand into a bluff with the trip jacks episode" shoving there Would in fact fold out trips, and the inverse being this situation where betting smaller would Not fold trip jacks and therefore I would have gotten paid off this time. So ya in that last senerio where I had trip jacks turning it into a bluff and shove is positive ev and in this case don't shove instead bet smaller? Is that right? Thanks.

PS not sure if the red River King completed a flush it could have been a diamond not sure if that's effects the outcome much.